Don King Praises Sharpton for Turning Mob Rat

Notorious boxing promoter Don King has defended the Rev. Al Sharpton following revelations that the pastor was a mob snitch who may have tried to help the FBI arrest King on drug-dealing charges.

King praised the MSNBC host as a "stand-up person" for secretly recording members of New York’s Genovese crime family with a customized Hartmann briefcase provided by the feds, the New York Post reported.

"Al Sharpton had enough guts to fight, if it is true, to fight for others," King told The Post while calling the reports that Sharpton was a paid undercover informant "old news." King added, "How many people would put their lives in danger?"

The electric-haired promoter, who was in Las Vegas for Saturday’s Manny Pacquiao victory over Timothy Bradley, also hailed Sharpton for battling drug dealers in his New York neighborhood by painting a large X on their homes to identify them to neighbors and police.

"They should give him five stars for service and duty above and beyond for the betterment of our nation, for this great country of America," King said.

"The people’s greatest resources are its children, and he put himself in the fight for our youth. He makes us live up to that creed, one man, for liberty and justice for all. I commend Sharpton for his bold, courageous Americanism."

King, who became friends and potential business partners with Sharpton in the early '80s, refused to say whether Sharpton had ever carried the Hartmann briefcase when they met, or if he’d suspected that the civil rights activist was secretly an informant.

"I’m not into mudslinging," he said.

King was drawn into the scandal surrounding Sharpton by reports that the promoter was one of Sharpton’s targets while he was working as a snitch for the feds. At that time, King was being investigated in an FBI drug-dealing probe called "Crown Royal."

Former Sharpton pal Robert Curington told the Post that an undercover FBI agent initially wanted to meet with King, but the flamboyant promoter "knew something was off" and had Sharpton talk to him instead.

Sharpton was forced to work for the FBI, or "flipped," after the agent ensnared him in a videotaped undercover sting attempting to buying cocaine. "It was greed," said Curington of the deal. "He just wanted the money."

The Smoking Gun claimed that as an FBI informant, Sharpton initially recorded conversations with King, the principal target of the "Crown Royal" probe.

Sharpton called Curington’s claims "blatantly wrong" and declared that he became a snitch due to threats against him by the mob involving up-and-coming record producers he was helping, not because of the drug sting.